


Nightmares

by kaijugroupiee



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Made up rules for how the stones of farspeech work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-28 01:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8424931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaijugroupiee/pseuds/kaijugroupiee
Summary: “It’s rude to listen into other people’s personal time darling, who knows what I could have been doing.”
“You were...you were screaming.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after episode 50 I guess! Who knows! Life’s a mystery!

Most members of the Bureau of Balance had nightmares. It was a side effect of working with world shatteringly dangerous objects. Everyone’s manifested differently, from Killian’s sleepless night training alone, to Magnus’s 3am gardening attempts. Taako screamed. He would wake up drenched in sweat and tears, his throat raw. Confronting him about it was fruitless, he would make a joke about being a screamer and change the subject immediately. Magnus and Merle stopped pushing it eventually, all they could do was suggest going out to eat for the days following the worst nightmares and avoid mentioning things like Phandalin. 

-

Kravitz’s day had been long. He’d closed three cases and already quashed what felt like a million plots to escape the ethereal plane. Vacation time wasn’t really something Death was allowed to take, but he was close to asking for it anyways. The cliche of aching bones applied to him more than he thought was possible. As he settled in to do the stacks of paperwork lining his desk, he switched his stone of farspeech back on. It blinked. He stared at it. It blinked again. He turned it over in his hand, held it close to his ear, nothing. Kravitz started to flip through the channels, most were silent, the other users having switched theirs off. The silence was so monotonous that when the stone let out a scream Kravitz barely held onto it in his shock. The scream trailed off and was replaced by heavy panicked breaths. It was Taako’s channel. Kravitz was standing immediately, trying to force his human form to materialize, the anxiety that had made it’s home in his body working against him. With a loud rip he created a rift. Bright red flesh with skin just knitting over it stepped through the hole and by the time he was standing on the other side there wasn’t a skeletal feature left. 

Taako’s room was small. It had probably felt large once but he’d shoved so many unnecessary things into the space it was all taken up by ornate lamps and unwashed dishes. What felt like more than half the room was taken up by a four poster bed with the biggest mattress that Fantasy Costco carried. And smack dab in the middle was a small figure tossing and turning. Kravitz let out a small breath of relief, he was safe at least. A ray of frost sailed past his head. Taako was sitting bolt upright in bed aiming the Umbra Staff at him. His hair was a mess, plastered across his face and back with sweat, he clawed it out of his vision. Their eyes met. Silence enveloped the room

“You uh…” Kravitz coughed and tried to look elsewhere, “You sleep with that?”

“Well, I need to be prepared for thugs waltzing into my room unannounced at 3am.” Taako belatedly realized tears were still slipping out and he tried to focus on the matter at hand. The tears slowed, but continued to slowly accumulate at the tip of his chin.

“I uh...heard you.” Kravitz produced the stone of farspeech and held it up like a peace offering, “I was worried.”

Letting out a sigh Taako finally placed the Umbra Staff on one of the many nightstands next to his bed. He also grabbed his stone of farspeech and quickly switched it off, “It’s rude to listen into other people’s personal time darling, who knows what I could have been doing.”

“You were...you were screaming.” As he spoke Kravitz approached the bed. Slowly, as if he was afraid Taako would run or simply Blink out of the situation. 

Dramatically Taako flipped around on the bed, caught in the sheets. He laid on his side, hand cockily placed on his hip. “You know me, that’s how I do.” 

“Taako…” Kravitz sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. For all his airs Taako was still crying.

“It’s fine.” Taako looked away. Gently Kravitz placed his hand on Taako’s cheek, catching the tears on his fingers. 

“Really?” Still moving with caution Kravitz swung his legs up and laid out next to Taako. He brushed his fingers through the tangled mess of hair caught on Taako’s ears.

“Don’t do that.” It was mumbled, and as he said it Taako shifted away in miniscule increments, allowing Kravitz’s hand to fall away.

“What?”

Taako’s eyes narrowed, distrust forming into the lines in his face. “You heard me.”

Kravitz relented, laying flat on the bed. “So what, you can flirt at me as much as you want but I’m not allowed to try and make sure you’re ok?” He glanced over at Taako.

The bed shifted as Taako folded into himself, knees up to his chest and arms holding himself shut. “You got it.” 

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Tough dongs ice man.” And his eyes were closed. Taako fell asleep so fast Kravitz momentarily wondered if he might have cast Sleep on himself. Snores filled the room, and to Kravitz relief the screaming did not return. He laid there, unsure of what to do with himself. It had been awhile since he’d been in a bed, a certain vulnerability was tied to it that he usually could not afford himself. Beyond that, sleep wasn’t exactly necessary for him any longer. And yet there he was, on a fake moon, in what was essentially a glorified dorm room, slipping into a nap.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll probably continue this???? I have theoretical dialogue for a second chapter so like.......? Also like if you notice any of those sweet sweet grammatical errors that I'm sure exist plz let me know so I can fix that shit.


End file.
